Basic question about using potential divider to limit capacitor charging voltage

This is for a DIY project I'm working on. I know I could just monitor the charging process and unplug before the capacitor blows, or get a more suitable power supply, but it just so happens that I have a bunch of capacitors rated at 1000 V and a transformer that gives me 6000 V DC. I'd like to use this rather than spend extra on getting another transformer.

Let's say I put the capacitor in parallel with a resistor, and this in series with another resistor, i.e. I'm using a potential divider to limit the capacitor output, like this:

Initially, the capacitor is going to be like a short circuit, so it'll charger very rapidly, but as it fills up, more charge will go through R1 instead. When the capacitor is charged at $V = V_{in} \times R_1 / (R_1+R_2)$, there should be no current passing through the capacitor.

This seems like a very simple situation to me, but for some reason I don't see anyone doing this or any information about a circuit like this online (or maybe I'm just not using the right search terms...)

Am I missing out something fatal that'll completely screw up my capacitors if I try this?

Also, any tips on choice of resistor size? I'd probably want to use the most resistant resistors I have to keep current flow small.